Friday, April 09, 2010

Boy, who didn’t see this coming? Since XM satellite radio merged with Sirius and Mel Karmazin assumed control of both, XM has just gone to hell. While trying to justify the colossal blunder of Sirius giving Howard Stern half a billion dollars only to see the King of All Media But One leave at the end of this year after essentially fleecing the company, Karmazin has resorted to old tricks of cutting corners, firing loyal staffers who, unlike Howard, can’t afford to be out of work, and showing utter disregard for his listeners (or in this case, subscribers).

All the things he promised Congress he wouldn't do, he's done. Isn't that called perjury?

His latest edict is to trash the baseball only channel – once the best sports talk stationl on the air. In protest, my son Matt wrote Sirius-XM a kick-ass letter, which you can read here. The net net is they’ve dumped some excellent hosts and replaced them with a simulcast of MLB.TV. So instead of hearing highlights we’re hearing “Hey, take a look at this!” Instead of hosts taking calls from listeners we’re getting round table discussions featuring unidentified commentators all talking over each and pointing to graphics we’ll never see.

This is good radio? This is an improvement? And they’re asking us to PAY for this? Oh, and by the way, it’s not even commercial free. You’re paying a monthly subscription to ease drop on a television show and suffer through commercials. Do the powers-that-be know that this is a horrible deal and long time listeners and supporters are furious? Of course they do. They just don’t give a shit.

All of the actual game broadcasts you can get from mlb.com. Instead of spending $150 for satellite radio you can buy an app for your smart phone for less than $15, just plug it into your car’s auxiliary, and hear EVERY broadcast (not just the home team’s) all season long. You can load that same smart phone or iPod with all your favorite music and never need the 100 commercial free channels Sirius/XM provides.

And just wait until we can all get internet radio in our cars. The Sirius/XM satellites will just be large useless disco balls floating aimlessly in space – it they’re not that already.

63 comments:

It's not just the baseball coverage that Sirius-XM has messed up. Their music playlists on the decade's channels (40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's etc.) all were greatly reduced when Sirius took over. Now XM's decades channels are the same as regular old radio. Just a few songs played over and over. Their days are numbered. Oh well, a good idea run into the ground by idiots.

I'm a commercial FM radio host. We were scared by satellite radio initially (or as we like to call it, "pay radio"). Very quickly, though, it became apparent that the threat to not that great. Their timing was bad -- with iPod and internet radio being similar to satellite radio but much cheaper to the user. Fortunately for me, I should be able to finish out my career before my radio format is seriously challenged.

And, did CCR payolla Siruis-XM. If I pay to hear Bad Moon Rising one more time...

I bought my wife a portable XM radio for Christmas. The fees to get the "Best of Sirius" (you know, the company they "merged" with) are insane, especially when coupled with a second radio. What I thought was going to be a cheap monthly add on fee became another $10 a month.

One factual error: Mel Karmazin did not make the deal to bring Howard Stern to Sirius. That deal was made before Karmazin took control of the company.

As to whether it was a wise move to pay Stern so much money, well, Sirius was a distant #2 in the satellite radio biz and teetering on going out of business before the deal. After they signed Howard, Sirius took the leadership in subscribers and took control of the company after the merger.

Let's face it - there was never going to be enough interest for 2 satellite radio companies, and with new technology, there probably won't be a need for any. But, was it a wise move to sign Howard at the time 5 years ago? Yeah, it probably was very wise.

I could see this one coming. Pure and simple, Karmazin is a crook. He still gets his millions in bonuses and everyone else loses. Gee, where have we heard that before? When is the public going to wise up and stop falling for this stuff. JUST SAY NO!

Internet radio is already available through your phone. Slacker.com has apps for most phone platforms. They hired a lot of former XM personnel to program their channels, or you can create and customize your own. The sound quality is much better too. Some platform/hardware combos already allow caching of stations (the station plays without an active signal), and more are to come. Since I discovered it, I haven't looked back. I don't miss paying for XM at all.

It's even worse in Canada. XM Canada and Sirius Canada did not merge so we still have two crappy satellite services that largely duplicate each other. Still MLB is only available on XM Canada - or not. The cheap bas**rds that run the thing wouldn't pony up for more than 1 or 2 spring season games a day and now that the real season has started, we only get 3 channels "until hockey is over" (they also carry the sorry NHL). The $15 for the season for MLB At Bat on my iPhone is a huge bargain.

Let me play the contrarian here. I've had Sirius for three years (in my living room and in my car) and I love it. I also only listen to a handful of channels: the classical music channel, the jazz channel, the 1940s music channel, BBC News, CBC News, and the two NPR channels.

I got Sirius because it plays content that I wasn't getting on over the air radio (except NPR, but the Sirius NPR stations play a lot shows that my local station doesn't play). Most communities still have at least one over the air classical music, but increasingly they're just playing the "greatest hits" of classical music to hold on to what little audience they still have. Finding an over the air jazz station where I live is next to impossible. I can't stand commercial broadcast news, which is why I love NRP. But increasingly I want a more in-depth, international perspective which is why I love listening to BBC and CBC.

I've tried internet radio, but listening to the radio on my MacBook has always been more of a hassle than it's worth to me. I love my iPod, but sometimes I want to be surprised by what's coming next.

So I've been very happy with what I'm getting through Sirius. Granted, my listening tastes are very specialized, but so far Sirius has provided for them extremely well. As long as they continue to do so, I will continue to listen.

I subscribed to XM when there were only 30,000 listeners. I LOVED several of the channels, especially 60's and 50's. I listened in my car, I listened at home, and when they started offering online I did that, too. I encouraged all my friends to join. I wrote them, I requested off-the-wall songs (which they always had in their library), I e-mailed the DJs. Then came the merger, and my old friends started acting strange, and now it's just another show, something's lost but something's gained in living every day. After continuing to subscribe for a while, I could see they weren't going to get smart and go back to what made them special. I canceled my subscription about two months ago.

Did we ever tell you how positively radiant you are when you’re angry? Or, in the words of Sam Malone, “Are you as turned on as I am right now?” I’m almost certain we can tell how passionately pissed you are by the number of typos. If I’m right, is it because, in these particular instances, the need to exorcise those demons is so much more powerful than the urge to proofread?

I’ll see your Sirius and raise you one Comcast and two Time Warners. In our house, we haven’t even come to terms with pay cable. If there’s something on cable we want to see, we wait until it’s out on video rental, and financially we’re way ahead. Frankly I don’t care that much if Deadwood is no longer “topical.”

Is it not a reasonable assumption that the one hope of saving both print journalism and broadcast TV is that, in order to be economically viable, Internet sites will eventually have to have more frequent and annoying advertising, you can’t escape in order to view a 3 min. video clip? I assume even the Daily Show doesn’t make you sit through a :30 spot before every single bit. (Of course, I wouldn’t know, since we don’t have cable.)

And having had the dodo fortuitously walk into your shot at the exact right moment was positively mauritius. At least I assume it’s a recent photo.

WV: VAINA - Thinking you're still a celebrity, even when you don't even have to actually turn the letters anymore.

Just one final question. At this time of year is it only TV writers who never even entertain the possibility of filing for an extension?

I've been a subscriber for over 5 years and I've heard time and again how the programming has gone downhill since the merger. It's not bad enough that they've raised the price and started charging extra for online streaming. The only reason I keep it is for Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez.

I got my wife Sirius as a Christmas present like 8 years ago. She loved the "Disorder" channel because she has incredibly eclectic musical tastes. (I mostly listened to Raw Dog comedy...)

After the merger, I never heard the end of it from her on how hard the new stations sucked. They did away with Disorder. There's a 3-hour *show* called Disorder on the Loft on Sundays.

Not to mention her beloved Mansion of Fun -- that used to be six hours of David Johansen from the NY Dolls just...wow, it's hard to describe, my little cosmic vibrations. Now the show is only 3 hours long.

First things first, I would like to defend the Howard Stern deal for a second. Like him or hate him, he did what he was supposed to, which is bring in millions of subscribers to the the service in 2006. His audience is one of the most loyal in the history of radio, and many of them followed him there. Sirius was lagging far behind XM before he joined. This changed after he joined up, and by the end of the battle between them, Sirius was able to be in control when the two services merged. He was probably worth the money he and his staff were paid as far as the revenue and listeners he generated(his Howard 100 is the Number One rated channel on Sirius-XM by a large margin according to Arbitron ratings), even if he doesn't come back. You can't say that the Oprah or Martha Stewart deal had the same impact that the Stern one did, which was the biggest game-changer in the short history of Satellite Radio.

Now that I got that out of the way, what they've done to the MLB Home Plate Channel is a fucking travesty. Mel Karmazin has been openly hostile to the MLB deal that was signed before he took over, and you can see what he has done as a result. I can't believe they would do this to one of the true advantages of the service(being able to listen to any game any time anywhere you are in the country driving or at home, and the dedicated RADIO channel covering it all), and it seriously puts a dent on their brand. I'm signed through the end of 2010, and I'm going to have to think long and hard about reupping at the end of the year. I still enjoy the music services somewhat, but the rest of it is slowly waning.

And to Bob Claster: The Bob Dylan Theme Time Hour is one of the greatest radio shows EVER, and I'm glad I was able to have heard most of those wonderful 100 hours before he gave it up. A complete gem to cherish that even Mel couldn't screw up.

I live in the mountains, and I'd go nuts if I didn't have satellite in my car. I do notice a decline in quality since the merger--XM was happily devoid of DJs, but most of them aren't too bad, and a couple of my preferred stations seem to have narrower and more ClearChannelish playlists--but I'm keeping mine for 12 bucks a month. I guess my next car will either have a built in iPod dock, or this "intenets radio" you speak of, but for the moment, I'll hang on.

I've had Sirius since before the merger and, so far, have not had my pleasure horribly impacted. That could be because I live in the Florida Keys where I can't pull in the mainland stations and our local choices aren't extensive. So, Sirius gives me country stations, classic rock, music that I guess isn't considered classic yet but comes from the last three decades, Margaritaville and my favorite E Street Radio. All Boss All the Time. (The woman might move out of Jersey but ...)

I can also listen to the Philadelphia Eagles games on Sunday with Philly broadcasters who don't remind me 52 times a game that the Philly fans have booed Santa Claus and thrown snowballs at Jimmy Johnson. (His hair withstood the onslaught.)

Yes, the fans at the Vet did those things but, Jesus, get over it already.

Saying that Sirius "blundered" by letting Howard Stern "fleece" them is a fundamental misunderstanding of what happened. Sirius Radio wouldn't still be in existence in 2010 if they hadn't made the signing.

Also, much of Stern's half a billion came in the form of company stock. With Sirius-XM having taken such a hit, we can probably assume that Stern's Schedule D form has gotten quite a workout.

As for 2011 and beyond, Stern makes a habit of emphatically vowing that he will leave radio forever at the end of his current contract. This is about the 5th time his listeners are in grave danger of losing him forever. In other words, don't start believing Howard's walking out on his Sirius gig until three months after he's gone.

What's the surprise? This is nothing more than yet another American corporate story of Greed and criminal CEOs that are good at nothing but robbery. There are damned few examples that are the the exception to this new rule. Next story, US Airways and United will both go bankrupt, the markets will absorb the losses, the CEOS will merge the two companies claiming the merged entity makes the most sense economically, they'll merge and begin anew, debtless with lots of capital from new investors and nobody is accountable except you and me. The CEOS and those at the top of the pyramid will make a small fortune and the new company will be worse crap now combined than the two of them were separate. JUST LIKE XM and SIRIUS and DELTA and NORTHWEST and THELMA and LOUISE. This is NOW AMERICA, the land of the loss.

It's definitely true that Satellite radio could be better, but it is terrific anyway. I live in Vermont, where the broadcast radio absolutely sucks! It's either rinky-dink, squirrel- powered stations, or corporate cookie cutter stations. The one good station went off the air. The local ESPN affiliate keeps running local commercials over top of the actual ESPN programming -- which should be difficult given how few minutes of actual ESPN programming run each hour.

I don't need a cell phone, so it would be much more expensive than satellite for me to get a cell phone just for Internet radio.

So I am grateful for Sirius-XM even as I agree with you that it should be better.

It might be worth mentioning that there are roughly seven different BBC Radio Stations, all with their own website, offering an embarrassment of riches.

I listen mostly to BBC Radio 2, 4 and 7, because they have hours of music, comedy, drama and documentaries -- many of which celebrate American culture much more than today's broadcasts stations do. Even Bob Dylan had a series on BBC Radio 2, perhaps the one mentioned in above posts -- only all of this is free.

Most of the shows on BBC Radio stay available for listening on your computer for seven days after they air. You can click on them any time of day and they play.

I usually check the daily schedules on a weekly basis and then note the ones I want to hear on a word document with the URL, then when the air date comes, there it is.

The most unusual thing about BBC radio is that, unlike American radio which fazed out sitcoms, sketch shows and dramas by 1962, BBC kept making shows and still does, often with such names as John Cleese, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Diana Rigg, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and U.S. comedy folks like Jay Tarses, Greg Proops and Whoopi Goldberg.

This is a great picture. XM has a poor billing system and the prices are two high. The first bill did not make it to me and the second came two months later. Now they want $42 when I thought the service would just be turning off. I received a few phones calls (probably like 5) which all started with if you would like to keep your XM radio service going, call 866-xxx-xxxx. Well, I did not want to keep it, so I never called. Now they want their money or they will turn you into collections. What a threat that is. The claim that they mail the bill, so you owe it. I told her the US Mail is not always reliable and read her the address from Womens Day magazine that came to me by mistake of the US Mail. I asked her for a tracking number, speechless!

I called to cancel my subscription. New car came with XM. The Phone jockey read my password to me. The Phone reps, Typically paid very little, have access to your username and password. So if you use the same username and password for other accounts (credit cards, bank, ebay, paypal, email, etc.), some underpaid phone rep now has access to all your accounts. I'm pretty sure that is not PCI Compliant.

First of all, anyone that uses the same exact user name and password combo for their email, bank accounts, social networks, etc . . . is out to lunch and basically deserves the mess that ensues if you are hacked or someone steals your SiriusXM UN/PW combo.

Anyway, I'm more convinced than ever that the Anonymous comments on this blog are posted by NAB employees.

No offense but you are either a complete dolt or aren't even trying to experience the product if you think that terrestrial radio is superior in anyway to SiriusXM.

Here in Connecticut I occasionally listen to the WEEI affiliate out of Providence and WFAN out of New York, but always find myself going right back to Sirius as soon as the nauseating commercial breaks start.

The music stations are programmed better than anything on terrestrial. The entertainment channels are obviously better than anything on terrestrial. Mad Dog Radio and Dino Costa, in particular, is far more compelling sports radio than anything on terrestrial, except for a host here and there.

The one criticism I can wholeheartedly agree withis the customer service. But I think the quality of that experience was largely due to budgetary type constraints. I could always get someone in North America on the phone if I was persistent enough. I think that will begin to improve.

Since Sirius took over, the commercial breaks are worse than ever (on the channels that have them). XM customers lost insternet streaming. No chance in getting hold of a US-based customer service rep. XM has gone waaaay downhill. It seems Sirius wants to kill everything that made XM. Which is stupid, because XM was by far the superior product. I cannot wait until SiriusXM fails.

What's the difference between Sirius-XM and the Titanic? The Titanic had a good band.

I envision a time when people will look inside older cars and say, what was XM?

I don't see cell phone data coverage ever being good enough to compete with satellite in coverage and sound quality. And the ipod market seems to be have peaked. Zune and Apple are both killing their high capacity models.

Satelite was already doomed without competition from either. There's just not a big enough rural market to support satellite's costly overhead. And in large urban areas OTA stations are usually better at meeting the needs of the masses. Jazz, Classical, Hip-hop are all better OTA in Dallas, TX than on Sirius-XM.

Even in the best of times the business model was flawed. Given the state of the economy, I don't see it surviving.

Unchecked monopolistic greed is in the process of killing the middle-class goose that lays the gold egg. Once the investor class has milked these struggling Corps dry and dumped the cost onto the masses it's going to be party over. Say hello to the 3rd world.

Big Leagues, you must pay EXTRA as an XM subscriber to get internet streaming. This USED to be free, until $irius took over.

It is widely agreed that XM was the better product, by far, and that the quality of XM has dropped severely since it has been Sirius-fied. Sirius was being trounced by XM in subscribers and satisfaction. They have ruined XM by adding Sirius qualities to it.

Also, Sirius has destroyed all programming on XM202, name Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez. They did this by jacking up the number of mandatory commercial breaks, and giving the shows less freedom to do what they want. Terrestrial radio is allowed to do things these "uncensored" satellite jocks cannot. It is ridiculous.

You can say what you want, but Sirius was always the lesser product, and has completely ruined XM. Just about everyone who has XM has seen the quality drop, both in the product and the value. Sirius is a joke, and Mel Karmazan is a fat slob greedy prick.

I went to Sirius for Stern. Since then, Stern who stated he would be on five days a week, went to four. Now, he is going to be on three days a week. I used to be able to listen to it on my computer, now it's an additional charge. The price went up too, I think it's $15.95 now, just been kind of angry to even look at the inflated monthly basic charge. I may leave Sirius at any second, been there since the beginning. Just do not think it's worth it anymore. Not happy.....

Anytime there is a price increase it's frustrating. But what did you expect? That the price would go down? I think the Satellite service subscription is still $12.95 (then there are taxes and fees - like any service we pay for). Then, yes, they started charging $2.95 per month for the Sirius internet feed (as it became more popular and bandwidth requirements skyrocketed). I was frustrated too, but I complained at the time and got 6 free months.

If you have a smartphone with internet already, then get rid of the satellite service subscription and just use the app (Sirius Satellite receivers are still the best equipment out there. I have used XM equipment several times now and the reception is awful - due to the lower orbit angle of the satellites).

Or, you could still cancel the satellite service, keep the internet subscription and get software like RePlay A/V, install it on your computer and set it to record Howard each day. download it to an MP3 player that night and play it in the car or wherever at your convenience.

As for the 4 days a week. Again I was pissed like you. But I got over it because the show was so much better to listen to uncensored.

The 3 days a week is in alternating weeks with 4 day weeks. 2 less shows per month. Not so bad. He is 57 and I think we are pretty lucky to have this last Swan Song. His renewal announcement produced oneof the greatest pranks and reactions in the history of the show (Sal bawling his brains out thinking that Howard had retired). There is almost NOTHING else to listen to on the radio. Certainly nothing as entertaining.

I KNOW that you now pay for Internet Streaming. The same thing happened for Sirius subscribers at the SAME time that XM subscribers had to start paying.

I was frustrated too, because I don't think it was a well publicized change. I called and complained at the time and they gave me 6 free months of streaming.

But seriously, did you really expect that Internet streaming would remain free forever?! Do you think bandwidth is free? Is $2.95 really that unreasonable?

As for XM being a better service - I became a Sirius subscriber because of Howard. Overall my experience has been very good. I was frustrated by Sirius losing the NBA early on and not stepping up to the plate with Bubba the Love Sponge. But overall, its been a very good (not great) experience.

Finally, no one who has used both XM and Sirius satellite receivers can say with a straight face that XM is the superior experience. I have had rental cars with XM several times over the last few years (recently for as long as 1 month). In each case I had to put my old Sirius Stilletto in the car so that I could listen to the radio without the constant dropouts that XM equipment has.

This of course makes sense because the founder of Sirius INVENTED the technology. XM is and has always been the imitator. XM's satellites orbit much lower in the sky relative to the Sirius satellites. So, tree's can actually obstruct the signal on slight hill's or high tree-lined areas. This does not happen with Sirius equipment.

XM capitalized with the better business plan early on, but totally lost all momentum when Sirius lured Howard aboard.

I had XM since 2004 when my Dad got me a SkyFi as a High School Graduation gift, and from 2004-2009I use to listen to XM more than watch TV. It was cool the songs you never get to hear on regular radio and even the B sides of the 60's tracks talk about nice! Man did XM mess up merging with Sirius, the playlists are like regular old radio, and most if not all of the great personalities have gone leaving the subs with crappy uninteresting personalities. The only thing that was worth listening to on SXM was Opie and Anthony. Man I can only imagine what would happen when O & A walk out in 2012 when their 2 year contract ends, yep subs will plummit! I do listen to the show and man they are MISERABLE over there so I won't be surprised if they do walk out in October 2012. I cancelled my sub though in 2009 and listen to the b b boys on my iPod through Audible.com.

sirius sucks. i have a stiletto 100 device and cannot use the internet radio option anymore because they have disabled it for this device. i would have to pay additional sub to use the satellite option.

I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio and agree with a lot of posts on here. Thanks to Corporate terrestrial radio here in Cincinnati ruining a lot of the good stations that we use to have, I switched over to Sirius/XM radio and was happy for a while. I had enjoyed the variety and quality of programming. Now, I've noticed that most of the stations are playing the same songs over and over again (like Lithium and the 90's channel) and the sound quality is awful. If I want that, I'll just turn my FM radio back on because most of the stations here keep playing the same stuff over and over to. The sound quality is like AM radio and that's on my home Panasonic stereo! CD quality? Not even close. Plus, Sirius/XM just raised their rates again. I will be cancelling my subscription when it gets close to the end date. We shouldn't have to pay to hear the same songs over and over again! Internet radio is so much better!

I tried the SiriusXM free trial about a few months ago to see if SXM has improved, and guess what THEY'RE NOT!

60's on 6 is so bland without the Sweet 16 Countdown, the top-of-the-hour Beatles Bell, the super sonic sound sulute to the old radio stations, Wax Your Woodie, The Here and There countdown, and even Sunday Soundscape. Cousin Brucie is annoying as h###, he doesn't know how to SHUT UP AND GET BACK TO THE MUSIC! he talks and talks and just doesn't shut up.

Opie and Anthony has gone down the toilet too. After I cancelled SXM the first time in 2009, I was listening to O&A via Audible.com subscription and it seems like whenever they wanted to do something risque, one of Mel's buddies shuts them down everytime. THEY CAN'T EVEN TALK BODY FLUIDS ANYMORE BECAUSE MANAGEMENT TOLD THEM NO! How stupid is that? it's an XL channel for a reason for heck's sake. And don't even get me started on that dumb idiot named Primetime Sam Roberts, Sam should have been canned back in 2010, NOT MARTINI STEVE!

Simply put, Sirius XM hasn't improved a lick since the dumb merger back in 2008, and since I live in a city with unlimited high speed internet access I am listening to Radio.com, IHeartRadio, and Pandora. I am sure Sirius XM will still be beneficial for people who live out in the countryside, or for people who don't have internet access in their town.

I got the lifetime subscription when I asked if there would be any other fees the man said "no you pay the 500 now you are paid for life" 4 years later my radio breaks I get a new radio and they want to charge me 75 dollars. Of course they will give someone all the free months in their new car (myself included) but they will show no loyalty to their loyal costumers.

Adding my voice to an old post but relevant nonetheless. I've had an XM Radio subscription for nearly 10 years but in the last year I have been so disappointed by the decline in the music played on my favorite stations - and I listen to several different genres (40's - Deep Tracks - Jazz)The 40's station is pathetic anymore; all they play is boogie-woogie garbage over & over in the mornings, and the rest of the day is the Jonathan Schwartz jerk. When is the last time they played "Bluebirds Over Dover"?Deep Tracks have spiraled into another broken record with Alan Ladd ruining it every night. Hello - Pretenders "Don't Get Me Wrong" is NOT a Deep Track. How many times can you play Meatloaf and Bruce?..gag. I used to keep a notebook of real "Deep Tracks" songs I never heard before (and never since) but my last entry was in 2010 because they don't play that sort of stuff anymore.Real Jazz? - Real Crap. Unsubscribing and looking for something better.

I canceled my subscription today after 6 years, bottom line? IT SUCKS big time. Payment for commercials and repeat programming is insane. What a shame. They do not seem to give a hoot about cancellation at all! Heck with them.

So I went to renew my subscription last week and after multiple run-arounds with the lovely customer service reps I gave up. I cancelled and just signed up for Spotify. I really only used Sirius for the music, mostly Boneyard and Alt Nation. I was searching the google play store yesterday and came across a very interesting app that basically re-creates all of the Sirius music channels within Spotify. Not exactly sure how it works, but it does and it's pretty cool. It's called SSRadio. Android only for now, unfortunately.

If your tired of playing the game, I would consider this a viable alternative (unless you are going for the talk, news, sports, etc.)

I just got a new car with the Sirius trial included! I am fascinated by the variety and astonished that Bruce Springsteen has allowed the crap to play on E Street radio. Man, whoever that singer is on a lot (if not most) of these tracks would be booed off an American Idol audition or featured in the boner replays. I love Bruce's music but this is sad stuff. Low low quality. I have a perverse attraction to it since I can't seem to stop listening, it's that bad. Hey, Bruce, you're naked! Someone had to say it.

Recently I found myself on a camping trip in Rural Nevada where media options are limited to very scratchy AM radio and NPR (leftist FM). It goes without saying that if I wanted to listen to any MLB, I would have to look toward the sky. Luckily, I have XM radio in my truck and I was able to pick up the games that I wanted to hear.

Those of us that live in populated areas where cell phone signals, cable, internet and various other media are taken for granted can hardly fathom living in an area deprived of all of the above. I was surprised to find how many people live without these things that I use every day. Pandora, radio apps, my MLB app and every other app on my iPhone only work when there is a network available.

It's easy to say that smart phones with their endless app options are a better alternative to satellite radio but for many people it just simply is not an option. If I were to live in a rural area I would depend on my satellite radio every day. As many others have said, satellite radio has become very commercialize. Many of my stations repeat the same songs throughout the day. Thank goodness for talk and FOX!

DJ's and VJ's add NOTHING to the experience. Indeed, they detract from a good listening experience with a combination of irrelevant chatter about the MTV years, and smudgy and muddy, too-much-bass effects on annoying ageing voices.

-- two --

With more than 30 years of taped shows, why does Howrd100 play the same thing on Sunday they played on Saturday? Don't they have sufficient depth of material to play something different every hour of the week? Reruns on a premium service makes no sense. Miss a show? Too bad. If I listen two days in a row there is not enough content to go around.

-- Three --

You call that commercial free? When you ADVERTISE premium content like 24hr MLB or College Football between songs, that's a commercial. Clue in, and quit the cross- and up-sell.

I paid for Sirius once -- got a 1 year subscription with about a month of content.

Hear is my recent comment to sirius/XM which is inline with other comments. Just pathetic.

Listening to Spectrum this morning, Sunday 15 March 2015 at approximately 10:30 AM EST. Whoever the "DJ" was at that time should be fired immediately. I have contacted XM in the past regarding the inane, fallacious, insipid political commentary. The ignorant opinion(s) of your hosts have nothing to do with music and I am paying an outrageous amount of money to listen to a variety of music without commercials and I absolutely do not want some idiot's ill-informed political opinion. If I did I would listen to your talk radio stations, some AM station, or some ridiculous TV program.

Besides the mentioned people in very rural areas appreciate it I see no reason for XM. It's the same twenty, often eight songs over and over again, just like radio and perhaps worse. And I don't know who Tom Petty's people paid off but for some reason he was ever fifth song everywhere the last year. XM, regular radio and Pandora even after thumbs DOWN! Same Tom Petty.

XM is garbage. Even Elvis radio is the same playlist the next day and then you get other specialist channel that don't live up to the name. Like Ozzy's Boneyard or the Led Zep channel that are for some reason playing nothing but sound garden, Faith No More or that variety but Pearl Jam channel plays almost nothing but Pearl Jam. It makes no sense. It was free with my car and often I didn't listen cause after a week I came to the conclusion they should be paying me to listen to the same songs of the lame local stations' variety. Thank god for CDs and the USB stick. At least my collection doesn't try to tell me Beastie boys are hard rock unlike XM and Local rock stations.

Sirius XM is the most pathetic company I have ever dealt with -- worst than AT&T. They can not deliver radio to my truck, telling me I have to call the 855 number to have a refresh signal sent to my radio. Really? Every time I drive I have to call the 855 number? I used to be a Sirius subscriber from 2011-2013 and had no issue. I canceled the service and fell for their low rate six month offer in 2014 and again this week.

I get the free two week Sirius radio they put out every so often with no issue. After the two weeks, I pay for the six month plan and I get no radio. Here is what happened after five calls to their pathetic customer support:

1. They keep telling me it's my Bluetooth interfering with the radio (I tell them Bluetooth is off... oh, and I received Sirius radio during the free two week trial with Bluetooth on with no issues). They respond again, Bluetooth is the problem. 2). They had the wrong radio ID even though I'm a returning customer. 3). My radio is bad (Gee... works for the two week trial). 4). My satellite receiver is bad (Gee... works for the two week trial, oh and I get channel 1 all the time). For those who don't listen to channel 1, that's there commercial that is always available. They seemed dumbfounded that I received channel 1.

Their response? We will send you a refresh signal. Really? You did that four times yesterday. After the refresh signal, my radio works. I go home, turn off the truck, go eat dinner, come back out and no radio... but it works just fine during the two week free trial - never have to do a "refresh signal" during the free trial period.

I tell them over and over, it's not the radio or the satellite receiver. You have a provisioning issue with my account. Their response? Your account is fine, it's your radio. Wow... what a bunch of pathetic incompetent idiots! BTW, had the same issue and outcome in 2014... had Bluetooth during the 2011-2013 period, no issues.

I kept asking the rep why I seem to get the channels during their two week freebie period with no issue but when I pay for the subscription I don't???? Her lame answer is because it's free. Huh?

I have to raise my voice just to get them to cancel the subscription. They play the transfer me to three different customer reps only to tell me "we'll refresh your signal."

Thank God for social media where I can continue to inform the public about my experiences with this worthless company!

About KEN LEVINE

Named one of the BEST 25 BLOGS OF 2011 by TIME Magazine. Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created his own series including ALMOST PERFECT starring Nancy Travis. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres. and has hosted Dodger Talk on the Dodger Radio Network.

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